When we help our clients allocate their marketing budget between SEO or AdWords, we often hear the question where it would be best to spend the majority of the budget. In this post, we will therefore explain the difference between SEO (search engine optimization) and Google Adwords advertising (PPC advertising), as well as the advantages and disadvantages of both marketing channels.
What is Adwords advertising (PPC)?
It is important to start by explaining that Adwords advertising is Google’s PPC (Pay Per Click), which we at Click in primarily focus on for our customers. This also applies to other search engines such as Bing and Yahoo, but we take Google as our starting point, as approximately 90% of all searches in Denmark occur through Google.
Google Adwords ads are found at the top and bottom when searching for commercial content (in most cases).
At the beginning of 2016, Google chose to remove the ads from the right side to make room for 4 instead of 3 ads at the top (read more about it here).
This specifically means more visibility for Adwords ads and less visibility for the organic results that we work with when we work with SEO (search engine optimization).
In addition to the ads as we typically know them, this also applies to Google Shopping ads, which can be found both at the top and on the right side of a SERPs (search engine results pages).
Google’s primary source of revenue is through their Adwords ads. Therefore, it is important to understand that Google’s primary purpose is to get people to click on the Adwords ads and not the organic results. Their first priority will always be to get the user to click on the Adwords ads.
How much does Adwords advertising cost?
Google Adwords ads pay only per click (Pay Per Click). This means that it is 100% free to display your ad. You only pay when people click on the ad. The price per click varies greatly from industry to industry and how skilled you are at handling your Adwords advertising.
It is therefore impossible to say how much Adwords advertising actually costs and what you will pay per visit. The good thing about Adwords advertising, however, is that you can choose to lower/raise the budget from minute to minute and stop advertising if necessary.
The organic results
When we work with SEO (search engine optimization), we work with the organic results. These are all the results that are not included in the Adwords advertising.
These results are not advertising, but the results Google finds through its crawling of the internet.
At the time of writing, we still usually have 10 organic results in Denmark, but Google is also testing the possibility of 7 and even down to 6 organic results per search.
In addition to the typical organic results, as we know them from the image above, local results are also included as part of the organic results.
Please note that Google has also started offering Adwords advertising in the local results.
What does SEO cost?
SEO is basically free. You don’t have to pay anything to be found in Google’s index. Google’s search robots do this all by themselves. However, it is rare that you will experience top ranking in the organic results without investing time or money in the project.
The process of optimizing for top placement in organic results is called SEO (search engine optimization). This is a continuous work process where all the factors that are crucial for the placement of the page in search results are worked on.
Advantages of Adwords advertising
Adwords advertising allows you to be found at the top of search results in an incredibly short time. Less than 24 hours after you have set up your Adwords ad, you will be visible to potential customers.
Unlike offline advertising such as ads in local newspapers, handing out flyers, etc., with Adwords advertising you will be able to see exactly which campaigns, ad groups and keywords are generating sales and choose to prioritize these to get the most out of your budget (if correct and sufficient tracking has been set up on the site).
You are not tied to a fixed budget, but can turn down/up and stop/start advertising from minute to minute.
There is no upfront payment with Google. This means that if your advertising performs as expected, you will receive the money from your customers before you have to pay for the advertising.
Disadvantages of Adwords advertising
Adwords advertising can be an expensive affair if it is not set up correctly, managed and monitored regularly. You can quickly spend your monthly budget on no concrete sales/conversions if you do not target your advertising correctly and make sure to test what works and vice versa.
Unlike SEO, you will pay for every visit you get to your site. If your conversion rate is not high enough, you risk paying too much for each customer. (CAC – LTV = must generate profit)
Adwords advertising requires an incredible amount of time and knowledge to maintain and handle if you want to get the best results.
Benefits of SEO
If you succeed in getting an attractive placement in the organic results for a competitive keyword, you will constantly get traffic from this keyword without paying per visit as is the case with Adwords advertising.
You can reach customers in completely different processes than is the case with Adwords advertising and still get a good return on your investment in either time or money.
You will continuously receive free traffic to your website if you maintain your position in the attractive positions in the search results.
Disadvantages of SEO
SEO is a long-term and comprehensive process that does not just have to be set up like in Adwords advertising. In most cases, it can take several months before you start to see a return on your investment of time or money in the project.
It requires an incredible amount of knowledge to get the best results. You have to work on the technical, content and branding aspects to be successful with SEO.
There are absolutely no guarantees that you will end up at the top of Google search results just because you invest a lot of time or money in the project.
